AFTER THE WAR: IRAQ; Hussein's 2 Sons Dead in Shootout, U.S. Says

Acting on a tip from an Iraqi that Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, were holed up in a palatial residence in the northern city of Mosul, United States troops surrounded the house today and killed the two men in a ferocious shootout that gradually shredded the walls providing them cover.

Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division as well as Special Operations forces called on the men to surrender and were answered with a peppering of small-arms fire, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, chief of land forces in Iraq, said at a late-night news conference.

''They died in a fierce gun battle,'' he said. ''They resisted the detention and the efforts of the coalition forces to go in there and apprehend them, and they were killed in the ensuing gunfight and the attacks that we conducted on the residence.''

A senior defense official said Apache helicopters, A-10 Warthogs and fighter aircraft were called in to lend support.

The bodies of the two men, along with two others, were flown to Baghdad International Airport, the headquarters of the United States military in Iraq, where they were identified. The bodies were physically recognizable, General Sanchez said, adding that ''multiple sources'' had been used to confirm the identities.

General Sanchez said the other two bodies had yet to be identified, although Arab satellite television reports said one was the teenage son of Qusay, Mustapha, and the other was a bodyguard who had traveled with Uday since he was incapacitated by an assassination attempt in 1996.

Government officials in Washington also said the teenager might be Qusay Hussein's 14-year-old son, although they did not give the son's name and emphasized that there had been no final determination of the identity. The officials also said the fourth person might have been a bodyguard.

A retired Iraqi general who lived near the house said he thought others might have been involved in the gun battle and either escaped or were arrested.

The deaths eliminate two of the most wanted members of the former Iraqi government after Saddam Hussein himself, who United States officials believe remains in Iraq. Qusay was second on the playing-card list of the most wanted as the Ace of Clubs, and Uday was third as the Ace of Hearts. [Page A8.]

Analysts believe the deaths may diminish but not eliminate attacks that have killed 40 American soldiers since President Bush declared the end of major combat on May 1. Four American soldiers were wounded in the gunfight today.

There was a $15 million reward posted on the head of each man, which General Sanchez said would be awarded. He did not identify the person who turned in the two men, but Kurdish officials said the likely source was the owner of the house where they were staying.

One Kurdish intelligence official said today that the two sons were seen -- and filmed -- getting out of a car and racing into a house around 9 a.m. today. The film was quickly handed over to the American military, who confirmed the identity of the men, he said.

Qusay, 37, the younger, calmer brother, ran his father's security detail, the Special Republican Guards, and various intelligence agencies. A stockier version of his father, he rarely appeared in public. Televised meetings of the Revolutionary Command Council often showed him sitting at his father's elbow in impeccably tailored suits, taking notes on his father's every word.

The more flamboyant Uday, 39, was an infamous playboy feared for his sadistic, murderous bent, who organized the Saddam Fedayeen, giving pardoned criminals a new lease on life if they would kill for the government. They were the main guerrilla force that battled the advancing American Army.

Uday became increasingly unstable in public after beating to death his father's favorite servant in 1988, and was gradually discounted as a successor. He had a high public profile, though, as a member of Parliament, head of the most popular newspaper and television station plus chairman of the national Olympic Committee, whose basement was used a center of torture and rape. In a referendum on his father's rule last fall, Uday drove to the polling place in a pink Rolls Royce.

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Although some Hussein loyalists either paid or prodded by his sons are suspected of killing American soldiers, the attacks are also likely to be the work of Iraqis opposed to the very idea of occupation, tribal members bent on revenge for dead relatives and fanatics who believe Islam is at war with the West.

General Sanchez said he was sure the deaths would make a difference, though. ''I believe very firmly that this will in fact have an effect,'' he said. ''This will prove to the Iraqi people that at least these two members of the regime will not be coming back into power.''

In the continuing attacks, one American soldier was killed and one was wounded in an ambush today north of Baghdad, the United States Central Command announced. The attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at the vehicle carrying the men on the road between Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, and Ramadi.

In another incident, the International Committee of the Red Cross said one of its technicians was killed and a driver was hospitalized after their vehicle was fired on near Hilla, south of Baghdad.

Most Iraqis will be relieved that Mr. Hussein's two most likely successors have been eliminated as the manhunt for others continues. More gunfire than usual erupted across Baghdad as Iraqis started celebrating the news.

General Sanchez said catching or killing everyone on the wanted list remained an important goal, noting that American forces were still combing the Mosul neighborhood in hopes of gaining information about Saddam Hussein's whereabouts. The Special Operations forces involved were members of Task Force 20, the elite unit charged with hunting down top targets, senior American military officials said.

Some Iraqis could not quite believe the two sons were dead. ''I don't think it is possible, but if it is true, they deserved whatever happened to them,'' said Omar Salam, 22, eating his dinner at a roadside cafe as people fired guns all around him.

Not all the reaction was positive, however. The correspondent for Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite television network that has been a staunch critic of the war, described the two men as having been killed ''in cold blood,'' and one analyst brought on to comment called the method of their deaths a ''crime.''

General Sanchez said a full account of the assault by the 101st Airborne Division and the Special Forces, also aided by the Air Force, would be given Wednesday. It was unclear what types of pictures or other materials might be presented to convince Iraqis that the two men had been killed.

Several neighbors and Kurdish officials gave various accounts of the events.

Soon after receiving the tip, troops from the 101st Airborne surrounded the house around 10 a.m. and used a loudspeaker to warn whoever was inside to give themselves up, said a neighbor, Ali Jajawi, a retired Iraqi general whose house sits about 100 yards away. The response was gunfire, the boom of high-powered weaponry shattering the calm for three hours, he said. He said the amount of gunfire could mean there were some bodyguards who escaped. He said he had seen two men arrested at the house and said two of the bodies removed had beards.

Neighbors saw the owner of the house, Nawaf al-Zaydan, and his son Shahlan sitting in American vehicles. People asked him what had happened and he told them that Uday and Qusay Hussein were inside the house. He had gone to bring breakfast for them, he said, when the Americans arrested him.

Neighbors found it strange that he appeared totally calm and was smoking in the car, General Jajawi said, even as the battle gradually wrecked the walls of his house.

Farhan Sharafani, a tribal leader and a member of the Kurdish Parliament, said there was a widespread belief that Mr. Zaydan had turned the men in to avenge a slight.

Both Mr. Zaydan and his brother Salah had been prosecuted by the former Iraqi government under a law promulgated several years ago making it illegal to claim kinship with the president's family. They claimed they were part of the Albu Nasser tribe, Mr. Hussein's tribe, and were jailed for it, said Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, a member of Iraq's Governing Council from Mosul. They had been released only under the general amnesty declared last October.

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A version of this article appears in print on July 23, 2003, on Page A00001 of the National edition with the headline: AFTER THE WAR: IRAQ; Hussein's 2 Sons Dead in Shootout, U.S. Says. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe